


A Ladybug Can't Change Her Spots

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Holly's Round Six Trope Bingo Card [17]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 06:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7303840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last day of Marinette's life is nothing like she intended it to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Ladybug Can't Change Her Spots

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my Round Six Trope Bingo Card. Please heed the warnings.

Ladybug rounds the corner and makes it into a back room of the school just in time for the transformation to break. She shoves her back against the door, slamming it shut and trying to hold it closed with just her own strength while Tikki tumbles to the ground in front of her. Marinette fights to keep the door shut with the akuma slamming against it while also opening her purse to try to get something for Tikki to eat. She manages to coax Tikki up to her level with her voice alone, and then the kwami is curled up on her shoulder with her cookie, nibbling away quickly while Marinette strains against the door.

The second she finished her cookie, Tikki's eyes go huge, and Marinette knows something's wrong even before the kwami makes it around in front of her to speak.

"Marinette, take out your earrings!"

Marinette blinks. "What?"

"Now, Marinette!"

Normally Marinette trusts Tikki implicitly, unerringly, unendingly. But for her to ask _this_? "But I…" Marinette swallows, and when she speaks again, her voice is small and scared. "Do you not want me as your partner anymore? I know I--"

"That's not it, Marinette, it's--"

It's too late, is what it is. The akuma victim has managed to snake an arm through the door and get his fingers on Marinette's earring. Marinette feels the cold wash through her and almost drops to her knees right there. Instead, she forces the feeling down and leaps away from the door, shouting, "Tikki, spots on!"

The transformation feels nothing like normal, cold and fierce and terrible in a way that scares Marinette down to her bones. But she grits her teeth and fights through, straightening just as the akuma victim makes his way through the door. When he sees Ladybug standing before him in full costume, he smirks. "Excellent. Then my work here is done."

"Not so fast!" Ladybug calls, pulling out her yo-yo and spinning it, eyes narrowing on the akuma victim. He'd been reticent to cause any damage from the start, meaning if she can get the akuma out fast enough, there won't even be a need to use her lucky charm.

She manages to get the yo-yo string around his ankles, tugging him to the ground. He just smirks up at her when she storms over to him, dragging the pin off his chest. "You're going to regret that, Missy."

Ladybug ignores him, smashing the pin under her heel and catching the released akuma in her yo-yo moments later. She second she releases butterfly, though, the same chill she'd gotten when she'd transformed floods her, and she stumbles, only just managing to keep to her feet. She's just about to release her transformation and ask Tikki what's going on when the door slams open. She turns, relief flooding her at the sight of the man that's just slipped inside. "Chat Noir!" she says with a weak smile, "Thank goodness you--"

Chat settles into a defensive stance, baton twirling behind him. "What did you do with my Lady?" he asks, voice harsh and sharp.

Ladybug blinks. "What are you talking about, Chat?"

Chat doesn't let up. "I'm asking the questions here. What. Did you do. With my Lady?"

Ladybug takes a step toward him only to be stopped short by his baton pressing against her throat. It isn't until she puts her hands up in surrender that she catches sight of it out of the corner of her eye.

Her gloves are black.

She looks away from Chat, ignoring him completely in favor of staring down at her suit. It's black too, spotted with red the way Chole's had been when she'd been turned into an akuma. "What on earth?" She checks her gloves again, then her suit, twisting and turning on the spot. Her whole uniform's shifted, and she can feel the cold welling up inside her again.

"My Lady?" Chat sounds cautiously believing, and she turns to him, desperation tightening her throat.

"I don't know what happened, Chat! I--" She swallows, feeling suddenly small. "I don't know what happened."

He opens his mouth to speak, only to stop short and cock his head to the side, like he's listening to something. Then he looks back at her. "My kwami wants to talk to yours."

Ladybug doesn't respond immediately, pausing at the feel of Tikki pressing gently at the back of her consciousness. "I think mine does too." She frowns. "But that would mean--"

"Detransforming, I know."

Ladybug worries her lip between her teeth. "Chat--"

He sighs. "I'll step outside. Plagg knows how to find me just fine."

Ladybug can't hide the gratitude she can feel welling up inside her. "Thank you," she says softly.

Chat just throws his trademark smirk over his shoulder and saunters out the door, leaving it cracked.

Ladybug waits a few breaths before she releases her transformation, catching Tikki between her palms. "Tikki, are you--"

Marinette's cut off by a second kwami bursting through the doors and tackling Tikki out from between her hands. There's a flurry of high pitched twittering that has Marinette staring at the two of them in confusion. Finally, after a solid minute of chatter, they turn to look at her in unison.

The second kwami is all black, and Marinette barely has a moment to take him in before he's flying forward, coming to a stop right in front of one of her earrings. She tries to turn and look at him, but he places a tiny paw on her cheek, holding her in place.

The kwami makes a frustrated sound and flies back over to Tikki, twittering again. Tikki just shakes her head. The kwami makes a pained sound, but Tikki ignores him, flying across the room to Marinette, who reaches out to catch her between her palms.

"What's going on, Tikki?" She asks, voice soft and unsure. Tikki's eyes are sad, and Marinette feels fear drop like a pit in her stomach.

Tikki reaches up, touching her earrings gently. "The akuma. It cursed your earrings. It cursed you."

Marinette blinks. "How?"

"That's it's power. We've seen it once before with another Miraculous holder."

Marinette's throat goes tight with nerves. "Is that why…?" Tikki nods. Marinette clenches her eyes shut. "What's going to happen to me?"

When Marinette opens her eyes, Tikki's glancing over her shoulder at the other kwami. The moment passes in an instant, thought, and she turns back to Marinette, looking pained.

The other kwami speaks instead. "You're going to die."

Marinette feels her eyes go wide. "What?"

"One day," the other kwami says, flying across the room to join Tikki, who looks torn between gratitude and anger. "Well, twenty-five hours to be precise. Five hours for each of the five spots on your earrings, which will still fade any time you use your lucky charm. After all the spots have faded…." He shrugs.

Marinette feels the breath force itself out of her chest. She staggers back against the wall, sliding down to the floor. She stares, unseeing, at the room in front of her, trying to sort out the fear coursing through her.

Slowly, though, one thought floats up to the surface. She looks up at Tikki. "Can you find another Miraculous holder?"

Tikki frowns. "What are you asking?"

"Can Paris still be saved after I'm dead?"

"Marinette--"

Marinette shakes her head when Tikki flies toward her. "Please, Tikki. We don't have enough time. "Will Paris still be safe?"

Tikki's face falls. It's all the answer Marinette needs. She looks past Tikki to the other kwami.

"I need you to go find Chat. We need to after Hawkmoth tonight and take him down. We're out of time."

The other kwami glances at Tikki, then back at Marinette. He nods.

"And don't--" Marinette swallows. "Don't tell him, okay?"

The kwami frowns. "Tell him?"

"About the curse. Don't tell him. Please?"

"Marinette--" Tikki starts.

Marinette shakes her head at her kwami. "He doesn't need the added pressure, Tikki. We need to save Paris tonight, he just doesn't need to know why."

The other kwami glances between the two of them nervously, but Marinette sits up as straight as she can, staring him down.

In the end, he nods, turning around and flying out the window to find Chat.

Tikki looks sad and not a little upset. "Please, Marinette. There has to be something we can do."

Marinette raises an eyebrow. "If there was something we could do, you'd have said it already."

"Then why won't you at least tell Chat? He's your partner. He deserves to know."

Marinette shakes her head. "Not before we fight. He'll want to try to save me instead of save Paris. But Paris is our priority, not me."

"Marinette--"

"Besides," Marinette cuts Tikki off. "He'll find out soon enough." She looks down at Tikki, a sadness in her eyes. "But there's someone else that deserves to know."

\----

Marinette holds Alya back after class lets out for lunch, one hand on the crook of her elbow. "You got a second?"

Alya cocks her eyebrow, but settles back into her seat. "What's going on, Marinette?"

Marinette gives her a shaky smile. "I… I have something to tell you."

Alya nods. "Okay, shoot."

Marinette swallows. "I…." She shakes her head. "There's really no easy way to tell you this."

Alya frowns. "Tell me what?"

Marinette hesitates for a moment before reaching down to grab her purse. She hesitates for just a moment before popping it open. Tikki blinks up at her, looking confused for a moment. Then her face softens and she nods, flying out of the purse and perching on Marinette's shoulder. Alya blinks between Marinette and her kwami, confusion warring with the dawning comprehension in her eyes.

"You're… You're….?"

Marinette smiles weakly at Alya. "Surprise?"

"You're Ladybug." Marinette doesn't argue, and that seems to be all the confirmation Alya needs. Alya looks angry for a second before something else flits across her face. "Why now?"

Marinette flinches. Alya's quick, she's always known that. Marinette had just hoped she wouldn't be _that_ quick. "Alya--"

"No, I know that tone. Don't you dare deflect this Marinette. Why now?"

Marinette swallows. "I'll tell you, just. Just promise me you won't tell anyone about me."

Alya glares at Marinette. "Why shouldn't I?"

Marinette tries not to let her fear show on her face. "Promise me, Alya."

Alya still looks suspicious, but she nods. "Alright. I won't tell. Not unless you give me a reason to."

Marinette smiles. "Thanks."

Alya glares. "But why now? What changed?"

Marinette nods, sobering. "Because Chat Noir and I are going to challenge Hawkmoth tonight."

"And you're scared you're going to get hurt."

"Not scared, Alya. That's never scared me. We're challenging him tonight because I don't have any time to waste. That last akuma attack? It cursed me."

The color drains out of Alya's face, comprehension dawning. "Marinette--"

"I have a day left to live, Alya. Less, by now."

Alya stares at her, speechless. Then, without warning, she launches herself at Marinette. "Marinette, I--" She tightens her arms around Marinette's shoulders, and Marinette holds her carefully, feeling the suppressed tremors in her friend's body.

"I'm sorry, Alya," Marinette says softly.

Alya clings to her even more tightly and begins to sob.

\----

After she promises Alya that she'll be back for afternoon classes, Marinette slips out of school and towards home. She'd spent the whole morning writing the letter to her parents and she can only hope that she's in and out quick enough to avoid being noticed. She makes it all the way up to the living room and gets the letter placed delicately on the coffee table, but when she turns around, her father is just tugging the door shut behind him as he and his wife make their way into the room. Sabine looks taken aback to see Marinette there, but a smile slides easily into place on her face.

"Marinette! We assumed you were staying at school for lunch today what with how late you were!"

"Yeah," Marinette says, a shaky smile on her lips. "Yeah, I meant to stay, but then I realized I forgot something and so I just ran home real quick to get it. But I have it now so I'm just gonna--"

Marinette can't help but stop short when her mother reaches out to touch her carefully in the crook of her elbow. "Marinette? Dear?"

Marinette bites her lip but turns back to her mother, fighting down tears. "Yes, Mama?"

Sabine searches her eyes, something soft and uncertain in her gaze. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm--"

"Marinette, what's this?"

Marinette squeezes her eyes closed; her father has found the letter she'd left them. "It's nothing, Papa, I--" The sound of paper tearing as he opens the letter is enough to stop Marinette's heart cold. "Papa…" Marinette trails off, unable to find the words to beg him not to read the letter, not to do this now, not to make her face the fact that she's losing them just as much as they're losing her.

Her father looks up at her, eyes wide and stunned. "Marinette?" he breathes out, and all Marinette can do is launch herself at her father and wrap her arms around his middle.

"I'm sorry, Papa," she says, choking down the tears. "I'm so, so sorry. Please don't hate me."

" _Hate_ you, Marinette, I--" He pauses only long enough to hand the letter off to Sabine before he's wrapping Marinette up in his arms. "Never. You're my _daughter_ , Marinette, I could never hate you. I'm proud of you. So proud. And sad and scared, but I'm not angry and I certainly don't _hate_ you."

Marinette holds her father even tighter as her mother lets out a strangled sort of sound and reaches out to touch Marinette's shoulder. "Marinette, sweetheart…" she says softly. But she doesn't seem to have words either, and in a moment, Marinette releases her death grip on her father and turns to embrace her mother as well.

"I'm sorry, Mama," she says into her mother's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"I know, darling," she whispers back, holding Marinette tight. "I love you," she adds, pressing a kiss to Marinette's cheek. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, Mama." She pulls back, looking up at her father. "I love you, Papa."

"I love you too, Marinette."

For all that they say those words every day, it feels like something so much more now. It is something so much more. Because this. This is the last time they'll see each other. Marinette clings to her parents and tries to embed this in her memory, so that this, at least, will always be there. It's not going to be enough--she was supposed to have so many more years with them--but it will have to do.

\----

To be honest, she almost doesn't do it. It borders on cruel and the last thing that she wants to be is cruel. She tries to tell herself that telling Adrien how she feels won't change anything, and she almost manages to convince herself that it's true.

That doesn't mean that she's strong enough to keep herself from at least talking to him on the way out of school at the end of the day.

When she catches up to him at the door to the classroom, his brow is furrowed, and he looks lost in thought.

"Adrien?" she asks quietly when he doesn't look up to meet her eye when she falls into step with him.

He blinks and look up at her. "Marinette." He plasters on a small smile. "Sorry. I'm just a bit lost in thought."

"A lot on your mind?"

"You could say that." He doesn't elaborate, and Marinette doesn't press, content to just walk with him.

As they make their way down the last of the stairs out of the building, Marinette reaches out and touches Adrien's elbow, needing him to know this at least. "I'm glad you came to school here, Adrien," she says quietly. "I'm glad I met you."

Adrien blinks, something about what she's just said evidently jarring him out of whatever is going on in his head. "What?"

"You've been a really good friend to me, and I really appreciate it. I appreciate you."

Adrien frowns. "Where is this coming from, Marinette?"

She shrugs. "I just thought you should know what you mean to me, I guess." Adrien's worried frown deepens, and Marinette can't help the next few words that spill over her lips. She'd do anything to take that look off his face. "I like you, Adrien. I like you a lot." Adrien's eye go wide, and he looks more than a little taken aback. When a different sort of concern spills over his face and he opens his mouth to say something, Marinette shakes her head. "You don't have to say anything, Adrien. I just wanted you to know." She smiles, reaching up to clap him on the shoulder amiably before turning away and heading home.

It may have been selfish, but she owed it to herself to be honest with him, and she's proud that she didn't back down from that. It lightens her step and gives her more strength than she knew she had as she straightens her room in preparation for leaving it behind. She may not survive the encounter with Hawkmoth, but she knows now that she has the power to ensure that Chat will. At the end of the day, if that's all she can manage, she'll have done her fair share, and that's something to be proud of.

\----

Chat seems distracted when she meets him outside the church they'd tracked Hawkmoth to about three weeks ago and identified as his hideout. The plan to stake out the hideout until he showed had been Chat's, and it had been as good as anything that Ladybug had been able to come up with. But he doesn't seem like he's entirely there, and it sets Ladybug's nerves spinning.

She reaches out, hand on his elbow, and he startles, eyes jumping to where her hand rests on his arm. She hopes that the awful black color of her suit hasn't jarred him too severely. He looks up at her, and his bright green eyes look a little lost.

"You ready, Chat?" she asks softly.

He shakes himself and plasters on his classic grin. "Ready as I'll ever be."

She nods. "Then let's do this thing."

\----

Hawkmoth had shown up barely an hour after Chat and Ladybug had met there, and the ensuing battle had been as intense has Ladybug had expected it to be. The use of her Lucky Charm had been necessary, even though she'd held off as long as she could. And as she stands shoulder to shoulder with Chat, both of them staring at the man that they'd both only known as his alter ego for so long, she hears the telltale beep of her earrings and knows that this will be the last time that she gets to hear that sound. The last time that she gets to fight alongside Tikki. The last time that she gets to stand at Chat's side.

The last chance she has to tell him the truth.

She turns to face Chat, and he turns to face her as well, looking surprised at whatever he sees on her face. "My Lady?"

"Chat, I… I have to tell you something."

He stands up a little straighter and nods at her. "Of course, My Lady."

"This is the last time that we'll get to fight together."

His face crumples, his features shot through with despair. "My Lady, if I have done something--"

She shakes her head before he can even finish the thought. "It's not because of something you did, Chat. It's because of the akuma this morning." He nods, his eyes intent on her face. Ladybug bites her lip, suddenly wishing that it didn't have to come to this. "It… It cursed me, Chat. I'm dying."

His eyes go wide and he shakes his head, disbelieving. "My Lady, surely if that were true, my kwami would have--"

"I didn't want him to tell you, Chat," she says, shaking her head. "I didn't want that hanging over your head through this battle. I couldn't let it."

Chat is still shaking his head. "Then why would you tell me now?" he asks miserably. "Why not just disappear and let me wonder?"

"Because you deserve better than that, Chat," she says quietly. "You deserve my honesty as you have deserved it from the very first day we met, and I am only sorry that I didn't show you sooner."

"Show me what?"

Marinette gives a small smile and, with a brush at Tikki's presence in the back of her mind, lowers her transformation.

Chat stares at her, stunned and shellshocked.

"This is me, Chat. This is who I really am." When nothing seems to be forthcoming from her partner, Marinette nods, and extends a hand toward Tikki, running a hand over the kwami's tiny head. "You'll be alright, Tikki?"

The kwami nods, tears in her eyes. "I will be alright, Marinette. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

But Marinette just shakes her head as she hears the final damning beep of her earring. "You let me into this life, Tikki. Showed me what I was capable of. Gave me more hope and luck and love than I ever expected. You have nothing to be sorry for." Then she kisses Tikki's forehead one last time, and as the earrings beep to signal the end of her life, she looks up at Chat one last time.

The look in his eyes shifts from devastated to stunned, just as the blackness sweeps up over Marinette's eyes. She feels Chat lowering her to the ground, and it's almost the last sensation before she loses all grasp on reality. Almost.

But as she succumbs to the darkness, the last thing she hears is her own name in a broken voice that sounds just a bit too familiar. Someone she should know, but doesn't. Too close to her heart but not close enough to her head, and then it latches onto a memory and that. That can't be right.

But if she has to die, dying with her name on Adrien's lips isn't exactly a bad way to go.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come hang with me on tumblr!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


End file.
